Vasilis Zervos

Strategic research partnerships and economic performance: Empirical issues

A rapid rise in the incidence of strategic research partnerships (SRPs) involving firms, universities, non-profit organizations, and public agencies has stimulated an important public policy debate regarding whether these relationships enhance economic performance. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of SRPs and assess empirical studies of their effectiveness. We also identify data limitations that can preclude an accurate evaluation of the private and social returns to SRPs. We provide numerous suggestions for the collection and processing of additional data that would greatly improve our understanding of how these partnerships affect economic performance at the firm, industry, and aggregate levels. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The Impact Of Defence Integrators And Standards On Vertical And Horizontal Innovation In The Defence Industry

This paper analyses the extent and character of product innovation in defence technologies where there are strong network effects, but where there is not a generally accepted system of open standards. Specifically, we examine the implications for innovation from the development of network‐centric defence agencies accompanied by the creation of system integrators in the defence industry. The results show that although these developments are expected to have a number of positive impacts, such as enhanced security and gate‐keeping of the relevant technologies, they are also likely to have an adverse effect on the available variety of new defence products.

The importance of co-ordination in national technology policy: Evidence from the Galileo project

We assess the benefits from transatlantic collaboration in technology policy for publicly‐funded R&D space projects such as Galileo, a proposed European radio‐navigation space project. An industrial organisation methodology is employed to model negative security spillovers of ‘unilateral’ space projects such as Galileo, or space‐based anti‐ballistic missile defence, on the public sector of the other region (the US vs. the European Union). The findings imply that transatlantic co‐ordination in technology policy is required to allow the respective space industries (in the US and the European Union) to exploit the benefits of cross‐border strategic research partnerships (SRPs). This coordination not only reduces the costs of the respective programmes, but also addresses security concerns.

The impact of the us strategic defence initiative on the space race

This paper models the space race between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War using time series econometric modelling. The analysis shows that, post the Vietnam‐war era, military considerations play a key role in explaining the behaviour of US space expenditure. In particular, the US Department of Defense (DoD) Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) of the early 1980s is shown to result in a changing structure of the space race. This is expected to continue in the future with the current anti‐ballistic missile (ABM) programme and the withdrawal of the US from the ABM treaty of on space militarization.